Herne Bay Festival 2015

We’re gearing up for yet another amazing Herne Bay Festival. This year our Facebook friends and Twitter followers voted to choose the festival theme Victorian! During the Victorian period of 1831 to 1901 Herne Bay began to bloom:

In 1831 the first pier was designed & built by George Burge and Thomas Telford. The pier was built using wood, a fatal decision.

On 12 May 1832 the first passenger steamer, the Venus, docked at the pier head bringing passengers from London.

The Clock Tower was built in 1837 using a donation of £4000 from Mrs Ann Thwaytes, a wealthy Londoner.

In 1861 the railway arrived in Herne Bay.

1970 saw the first pier demolished due to wood related problems and the steamers stopping.

Between 1881 and 1901 the town’s population almost doubled, from 4400 to 8400.

In 1896 work began to build a new long pier to accommodate regular steamers again.

When it was finished this would be the second longest pier in the country!

At the turn of the century the popular nickname for the town was ‘Baby Bay’ because so many nursemaids and children spent time here!

The Kings Hall was opened in 1904 by Queen Victoria’s daughters shortly after her death.

This year we will be celebrating Herne Bay in its Victorian Heyday and we’ve got some fabulous events planned including the annual evening lantern parade, sandcastle competition, Fireworks display, Live music stage and Alfresco ballroom with dance workshops and of course Herne Bay’s Got Talent.

As well as this you have been busy creating and organising and we can expect to see loads of great events run by the people of Herne Bay including arts workshops, crab catching competitions, discos, Herne Bay Rocks and the Giant Picnic.

Programme will be available soon.

Latest news

Quite a few of you have been telling us how much you enjoyed the music at Phoenix Rising on Saturday 23rd August and would like to know the names of the pieces, so here they are! The songs were edited and re-arranged by the sound designer especially for the event so they aren’t the same as […]

Unfortunately Spill – A Playground of Dance, which was taking place at the seafront playground today (Tuesday 26th August) at 2pm, has been cancelled due to the rain. The workshop at 3.15pm may go ahead if there are participants, the 4pm show may go ahead if it stops raining by 2.30pm. However, we would suggest […]